English version The fine observers of Gabonese politics would easily detect this; unable to submit an argument of defense of his regime based on the results aligned on the huge revenues of the country, given the decline seen in the country, Ali Bongo appears to have decided to play his all and to ask the international community to accept that he remains in power, to avoid the risk that Gabon descends in chaos, because without him, it would be nothingness and barbarism! To accomplish this, Ali Bongo has prepared the ground. He has called upon the official newspaper of the françafrique, Jeune Afrique, which in articles usually attributed to George Dougueli, but expressing the will of the Gabonese regime to portray the Gabonese people in unflattering ways, whose main fault seems to be a too great fondness for xenophobia. To bring tangible evidence to these claims, Ali Bongo’special services are activated …

English version In 1995, at the time Gabon’s production of oil was at its peak, Omar Bongo, thinking that he did not need Opec, told that organization that Gabon would withdraw from it because Opec had refused to grant Gabon a reduction of its annual contributions. Omar Bongo’s argument at the time was that since Gabon was Opec’s smallest member, it had to pay lower fees than all other oil producers. Omar Bongo felt that it did not need Opec. At that time, Opec countries contributed equally to the budget of the organization in annual fees of about $1.79 million. This is the amount Omar Bongo refused to pay and the reason he removed Gabon from Opec. The argument of the large countries was that since all members had equal voting rights, they all needed to pay the same amount. However, observers have indicated that Omar Bongo’s real motivation in withdrawing from Opec was to allow Gabon to produce more oil than its quota imposed by Opec. A production quota was imposed on all…

English version La Lettre du Continent reveals that Victorine Tchicot, who once served successively in the functions of personal secretary to Omar Bongo, then as special advisor to Ali Bongo, before becoming Sylvia Bongo’s chief of staff; has become since her resignation from the latter post in January, subject to intense intimidation and is under the permanent surveillance of Ali Bongo services. Mrs. Victorine Tchicot has since her resignation, committed the crime of betrayal of having established close ties to the Heritage & Modernity movement, and that, Ali Bongo and his wife, do not accept. La Lettre du Continent also informs us that Chantal Myboto has now been struck with an indefinite ban of leaving the national territory. Given the internal bleeding underway within the PDG, Ali Bongo multiplies travel in the neighboring countries of Central Africa, in search of support for his holding on to power and also to weaken his potential challengers in the eyes of the Heads of States of…

English version The Ruban Vert school of Libreville is located near Batterie IV, a neighborhood of the Gabonese capital. This blog did a quick investigation that allowed us to confirm that this so called “elite” school would cost between 9 and 12 million CFA francs (between 13500 and 18000 euros approximately) in annual school fees per child. How many Gabonese parents, even among the upper classes, can offer their children an education at this price? On a staff of 23 teachers, only 3 are Gabonese. This blog has nothing against this type of private education that is selective by the ability of parents to pay exorbitant school fees. The problem is that this school was created, as a for profit entity by Sylvia Bongo, with Gabonese public funds in a country where her husband talks about equal chances of success for all children. Can one be for equal opportunities for all Gabonese and create an expensive school that …

English version For some time an intense military activity has been noted in Woleu-Ntem. Concordant testimonies indicate that Ali Bongo’s regime would have introduced weapons and mercenaries in that province. When we add to this the fact that in articles scattered in the Western press by his lobbying firms, Ali Bongo who cannot brag about his economic record, speaks only of the terrorist threat to Gabon; the question to ask dear readers, is why does he do this? We on this blog, think that to attempt to save his power, Ali Bongo is trying to position himself to the West as the guarantor of security in Central Africa, by exploiting the fear of terrorism to sterilize the political debate and make the international community to give him carte blanche to use repression to get rid of this threat, you can imagine, will be described by the regime as being facilitated by the oppositi…

English version The Sacred Union of Patriots has presented the timetable for the destitution. Week 1: Ali Bongo gives up the run for the next presidential election. Week 2: Ali Bongo resigns. Week 3: Ali Bongo is deposed by the National Assembly. Week 4: popular insurrection for the dismissal of Ali Bongo!

English version Recently, after the resignation of Guy Nzouba Ndama as President of the National Assembly, the PDG Parliamentary Group, led by its President, Andre Dieudonne Berre, met around Ali Bongo at the presidency of the republic, to renew their allegiance to him, to which all members of this group were signatories. When parliamentarians must sign documents pledging allegiance to the prince, are we still in a republic? In modern states, the parliament consists of a set of elected officials supposed to represent the citizens. This parliament is therefore made of a number of members who represent the voters in their constituency. In a presidential system as is Gabon, the role of the parliament is to vote laws and monitor government’s action. That is to say that this parliament has important legislative and control powers, and to carry out these functions, it needs a certain distance and independence …

English version The latest edition of the publication Africa Confidential, of April 2016, suggests that the presidential election of 2016 has already been decided in advance. This will certainly appeal to those who say they want to go to the election at any cost, despite the fact that Ali Bongo is locking everything up and notwithstanding his ineligibility! This publication joins our analysis, in that like us, it thinks that in the current state of the electoral system in Gabon, Ali Bongo's reelection by another run through, will be a cakewalk. For this publication, although Guy Nzouba Ndama left the PDG and announced his intention to stand for the election of 28 August, nothing suggests that he has the wherewithal to be able to give him victory in a ballot of a single round totally under the control of Ali Bongo. Similarly, this publication thinks that Jean Ping, who left the PDG in 2014, will be unable to prevent Ali Bongo to simply declare himself the winner. Heritage…

English version The term thug state is defined as: the power exercised by thugs; as a government of thugs, using methods of thugs. When a candidate is running for election with forged documents, he is a thug! When an application containing false documents is validated by the Constitutional Court it means that the country's institutions are part of that thuggish rule. When a former president of the National Assembly declares his intention to stand against Ali Bongo in the election, although he knows that Ali Bongo’s papers are false, this means that this former president of the National Assembly accepts to sustain thug rule. When a power abandons, discriminates and ghettoizes its own citizens, it means that this power is thuggish. Guy Nzouba-Ndama describes a string of ailments affecting Gabon, he says that Ali Bongo is not able to straighten Gabon; however, he claims to want to go to the Presidential election against Ali Bongo, although Ali Bongo is no…

English version In his interview with the journal Le Point Afrique, Guy Nzouba-Ndama said the following: "I think very often in Africa, the opposition fails for being over-optimistic. They think that it is enough to say this or that for things to change. There is a camp which is asking Ali Bongo Ondimba for a compliant birth certificate. The other thinks we should go to the election even if we have to ask the Gabonese people to punish him at the polls. Both have their reasons. The President of the Republic declared himself during an interview with RFI that he provided a false birth certificate in 2009. He was sworn in on the constitution and vowed to respect the rule of law. He confessed to have committed forgery of public documents. He should draw the consequences. If Ali Bongo truly loves his country as he said, he should understand that he has created a problem for his country and withdraw from the race instead of putting the country into conflict because of his own actions and …